UPDATE 1-Peregrine Financial's ex-CEO faces Jan. 31 sentencing

January 14, 2013|Reuters

Jan 14 (Reuters) - Peregrine Financial Group's former chiefexecutive, who pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $100million from customers of his futures brokerage, will besentenced on Jan. 31, according to court documents filed onMonday.

Russell Wasendorf Sr., 64, who founded the now-defunct firm,

faces a potential maximum sentence of 50 years in prisonafter pleading guilty in September to mail fraud, lying toregulators and embezzling customer money.

Wasendorf has been awaiting sentencing in a jail in Iowa,where Peregrine Financial was based. The Jan. 31 hearing is inU.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Wasendorf's life unraveled in July when he attempted to killhimself and confessed in a suicide note to bilking customersover nearly 20 years.

Peregrine Financial, known as PFGBest, quickly collapsed andthousands of former customers are still missing money.

Meanwhile, bills from lawyers and accountants working tohelp a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee figure out whatremains at the failed brokerage are rolling in.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the world's largestaccounting firms, submitted a bill for $1.6 million for about4,239 hours of work between July 22 and Oct. 31, according to afiling in Peregrine's bankruptcy case on Monday.